


Lost in the night

by 4thofFive



Series: Life with Isabel [7]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, My OC Isabel Williams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 17:45:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1753340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/4thofFive/pseuds/4thofFive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A terrified Isabel must find help to save Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lost in the night

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of the stories I wrote in the Life with Isabel series from a couple of years ago. I hope you enjoy.

Prologue

 

A strange other worldly shriek came from the black-shrouded trees to her right and Isabel cried out and fell to her knees bending her body forward until her forehead was almost touching the ground. She wrapped her arms protectively around her head and rocked back and forth sobbing quietly.   
  
The night was alive with the feral sounds of the rainforest and the dark was like a living, breathing thing that seemed to want to swallow her whole. She lifted her head fearfully and her eyes darted about searching for danger. The trees and branches around her were the bent and twisted arms of a witch clawing out towards her. She shrank away from them certain that they would grab her and entwine around her body dragging her deeper into the darkness never to be seen again.  
  
She had to keep going. She had to get help but she couldn’t seem to make her body respond. She was too terrified to move and too terrified to stay. Her shoulder hurt, her head hurt and her legs and arms were scratched and bleeding. She wanted to be home safe with Danny and Steve on the beach; curled up in her bed with her stuffed seal or in the living room watching a movie with Grace.   
  
She took several deep breaths trying to calm herself in the way Danny had taught her when she woke up with nightmares as a child. With shaking hands Izzy picked up the hem of her tee shirt and wiped it over her sweat and tear-stained face. She climbed unsteadily to her feet and began hurrying down the road again, her fingers held tightly to her ears to block out the strange, wild noises. She wished she could close her eyes.  
  
A black shape fluttered past her and she felt a breeze from flapping wings on her face. She screamed in horror and began running wildly, not sure where she was heading, just needing to get away, to get back to the light.  
  
  
**********  
  
“Danny we’re leaving now,” Steve called up the stairs to his husband as his sister-in-law stood excitedly by the door bouncing on the balls of her feet.  
  
Danny emerged from his and Steve’s bedroom and trotted down the stairs to come to a stop in front of his husband.  
  
“Already? She doesn’t have to be there till 6 p.m.”  
  
The taller man smiled and flicked his eyes over to Izzy pointedly before looking back at Danny.  
  
“Iz has got ants in her pants,” Steve said causing Danny’s sister to giggle at the statement.   
  
“I figure we might as well leave now. Besides, there’s a lot of construction on the Farrington Highway and we might get held up.”  
  
Danny nodded and walked over to his sister. He put his hands on her shoulders and leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead before smiling down at her.  
  
“Are you excited sweetie?”  
  
The pretty blonde woman grinned up at her brother happily.  
  
“Yeah! We’re going to have so much fun. We’re going to camp and hike in the forest and see animals and everything!”  
  
Danny returned his little sister’s smile happily. He and Steve had found an organization that took special needs adults on adventures around Oahu. Iz had been part of the group for several months and had made some great friends but this was the first time the gang was going to be on a weekend-long trip without their parents or guardians. It was also the first time she’d spent two nights away from Steve and Danny except when she stayed overnight at Rachel’s.  
  
“You’re sure you’re ok with this?” Danny asked her, his expression becoming serious. “You won’t be scared?”  
  
Izzy pursed her lips together and shook her head firmly.  
  
“No, I won’t be scared Danny. It’s going to be fun.”   
  
The young woman’s expression suddenly turned serious as well and she glanced between her brother and her brother-in-law.  
  
“But what about you and Steve?” she questioned worriedly. “What will you do while I’m gone? Will you be lonely without me?”  
  
Danny glanced over his shoulder at Steve and waggled his eyebrows suggestively causing the taller man to blush and look away. The detective looked back at his sister and gave her a bright, innocent smile.  
  
“Steve and I will miss you but it’s only for a couple of days and we’ll find something to keep us busy.”  
  
Izzy smiled up at her brother in relief before looking over at Steve pleadingly.  
  
“Can we go now Steve please? I promised Kiani that I’d sit next to her on the bus and I want to show her the compass you gave me.”  
  
Steve nodded and walked over to the siblings putting a hand on each of their shoulders.  
  
“Yes we can go now. Pick up your backpack and put it in the truck ok? I’ll be out in a minute.”  
  
With a cheer of delight, Izzy hugged Danny quickly, grabbed her backpack and flung open the front door and ran out into the soft late afternoon light.  
  
Steve turned to his husband and entwined a finger in the neckline of Danny’s tee-shirt before yanking the smaller man close, their lips inches apart.  
  
“I’ll be back in about two hours,” the dark haired man growled. “I want you naked and spread out on our bed ready for me you understand?”  
  
Danny swallowed thickly and looked up at his handsome husband licking his lips unconsciously.  
  
“Yeah,” the blonde man replied, his voice hoarse. “I understand. I’ll be ready.”  
  
Steve smiled before stooping down and kissing Danny firmly on the lips. He released Danny’s shirt and stepped back dragging his eyes slowly up and down Danny’s body as if mapping out what he planned to do to the other man. He turned away and sauntered out the door to follow his sister-in-law to the truck.  
  
Danny took a moment to take several slow, deep breaths and adjust himself in his shorts before walking outside to stand on the steps and wave goodbye to his sister.  
  
**********  
  
Isabel sighed in frustration and shifted in her seat again.  
  
“Steeeve,” she whined. “This is going to take too long. We’re going to be late and they’re going to leave without me.”  
  
Steve rubbed his hand over his face in exasperation. The construction crew up ahead had stopped traffic as a large piece of machinery slowly inched its way across the road. The SEAL consulted the clock on the dashboard of his truck.  
  
“They won’t leave without you honey but if we don’t get moving soon we’re going to make everyone late.”  
  
Steve glanced around the road searching for familiar landmarks. His raised his eyebrows and smiled when he saw what he was looking for. The Commander turned to grin at his sister-in-law.  
  
“Hey Iz, feel like having an adventure with me before you have an adventure with your friends?”  
  
Isabel furrowed her eyebrows together and looked over in confusion at the dark-haired man.  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Well when I was a kid my buddies and I used to ride our dirt bikes up and down a forest road near here. I haven’t been on it for a long time but I remember it being a shortcut. If we drive on it we could go past all this construction and we wouldn’t be late. What do you say?”  
  
The young woman grinned happily and nodded.  
  
“OK let’s go!”  
  
**********  
  
Izzy clutched the arm rest on the door as the Silverado thumped over another rut in the crumbling road. The pavement was pitted and broken and obviously rarely used.  
  
“It’s bumpy,” said Isabel as Steve eased the truck over another hole in the road.  
  
Steve grimaced unhappily.  
  
“Yeah it is. It’s worse than when I was a kid.” He looked over at the young women guiltily. “Sorry sweetie, this may not have been a good idea.”  
  
His sister-in-law grinned back at him happily.  
  
“I like it. It’s like being on a rollercoaster!”  
  
Steve chuckled and shook his head in wonder as he turned his attention back to the road. The Williams children never failed to surprise him  
  
“How much longer Steve?” asked Izzy as she nervously stared up into the dark canopy of the trees that seemed to envelope the road.  
  
“Another 45 minutes or so on this road then…”  
  
Steve stiffened as he caught a movement off to his right. He gasped as two young people riding an ATV roared out of the jungle directly into the path of the truck. The SEAL gripped the steering wheel and wrenched it to his left as he slammed on the brakes. The truck wasn’t going very fast but it fishtailed on the loose rocks on the road and Steve tried desperately to right it. Steve heard Isabel scream as the truck’s back end slid over the side of a steep embankment. The back wheels spun uselessly unable to find enough purchase to push the vehicle back up on the road and Steve had only a moment to scream at Isabel to hang on as the truck began sliding down the embankment. The weight of the front end shifted the truck until it was sliding sideways down the embankment, the thick jungle hurtling towards them. Steve’s head slammed into the driver’s side window and as he started to lose consciousness, he felt the truck tip until it began to roll the rest of the way down the embankment.  
  
**********  
  
Danny unlocked the sliding doors from the lanai and entered the house through the kitchen grabbing the towel he’d left slung over the kitchen chair. He rubbed the sweat from his face and stopped at the sink to grab a glass of water. He’d always loved going for a run in the late afternoon in Hawaii when the cooler air and setting sun made the whole experience that much more pleasurable.   
  
Danny’s next task was to go for a swim. He sighed disgusted with himself that he’d adopted so many native ways. Three years ago when he first moved to Hawaii you’d have to drag him to the water. Now he kind of enjoyed it. The detective rolled his eyes and he gulped down the last of the water. OK maybe enjoy was a bit strong. Swimming was still not one of his favourite things but he’d discovered something rather fascinating not long after he and Steve started sleeping together. For some reason, that Danny didn’t want to analyze too closely, the smell of salt water on Danny’s skin was like an aphrodisiac for Steve and Danny believed very strongly in doing anything necessary to put Steve in the mood – not that that was difficult. He was married to a Neanderthal after all.  
  
Danny smiled as he thought about the weekend of sex he and Steve would be enjoying in a couple of hours. The two men rarely had the house to themselves and while they loved having Izzy living with them, they always welcomed the opportunity to be alone so that they could express their love for each other all over the house, the beach, the garage – anywhere that struck their fancy. The pair was always inventive when it came to new places to fuck.  
  
Danny put the water glass down on the cupboard and walked through the house and up the stairs to find his bathing suit. The phone rang just as he entered his and Steve’s bedroom and he groaned in annoyance. Surely to god it wasn’t a new case. Couldn’t the newlyweds have one weekend to themselves?  
  
Danny picked up the landline and answered with a curt hello.  
  
“Danny? It’s Marissa Etsuko from the Pilialoha club.”  
  
“Hey Marissa, how are you?”  
  
Danny could hear the hesitation in the young woman’s voice.  
  
“Well I, I’m fine Danny but I’m wondering if Isabel is ok? Did she change her mind about coming on the camping trip with us?”  
  
Danny felt his heart freeze in his chest and he gripped the phone a little tighter.  
  
“What? I don’t…Steve and Izzy should have been there well over an hour ago. They left the house just before 4 p.m.”  
  
“Oh,” The young woman responded now sounding more worried than confused. “That’s odd, they haven’t arrived here yet and we’re all waiting for them. I know that traffic is bad on Farrington Highway but the other parents made it ok.”  
  
Danny swallowed roughly. There was no reason to panic. He knew this but he also knew that if Steve had had car trouble or was going to be late he would have called.   
  
“Look Marissa, I’m going to see if I can call him. If not I’ll drive out to the highway to see if maybe he’s broken down or something.”  
  
“Well umm,” the young woman sounded hesitant. “Should we wait or…?”  
  
Danny sighed and rubbed a shaking hand through his hair.   
  
“No. Don’t bother. I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun. If you could just leave word with someone there about where you’ll be camping tonight, I’m sure Steve will find a way to get Izzy there ok?”  
  
Danny finished his conversation with the young group leader and immediately called Steve’s phone. A recorded announcement advised Danny that the number he was trying to call was unavailable. The detective furrowed his brow worriedly. The Farrington Highway had clear cell phone service. What the hell was going on? Maybe Steve’s phone was out of order?  
  
Danny pushed #3 on his speed dial and waited for it to be picked up on the other end.  
  
“Chin? I’m sorry to bother you but I need your help. I think something might be wrong.”  
  
**********  
  
Isabel pulled her arms away from her face and slowly opened her eyes looking around carefully. The world was a strange prism of disjointed images viewed through the broken and splintered glass of the truck’s windshield.   
  
The forest was oddly quiet, only the ticking sound of the truck’s cooling engine seemed to disturb the silence. It was if she were the only creature left alive on earth. That thought had the young woman shiver in terror.  
  
Isabel turned her head slowly to see Steve still strapped to his seat, his body slumped to the right at an awkward angle – pushed out of position by the tangled wreckage that seemed to hold him in place like a mouth with jagged teeth. The SEAL’s face was covered in blood from an angry gash in his forehead and his eyes were closed, his body limp.  
  
“St-Steve?” Isabel’s voice quavered in fear. “Steve? Are you ok? Wake up Steve.”  
  
The young woman struggled for a moment to unlock her seat belt before it finally gave way with one firm tug on the strap. Isabel climbed to her knees on the seat and leaned over to gently pat Steve’s face.   
  
“Steve? Please wake up Steve. I’m scared. Wake up.”  
  
Steve moaned softly and that encouraged Isabel to pat his face a little harder while gently shaking his right shoulder with her other hand. Steve moaned again and blinked his eyes open. The SEAL opened and closed his eyes as if trying to focus them before carefully lifting his head to look up at his sister-in-law.  
  
“Iz?”  
  
Isabel drew her lips between her teeth and nodded. Her eyes filled with tears.  
  
“Are you ok Steve? Are you hurt? We got in a car accident.”  
  
“Accident?” Steve responded feeling groggy and confused. “We were in an accident?”   
  
The SEAL tried to sit upright but the movement caused him to cry out in pain which elicited a similar cry of fear from Isabel.

  
“Steve? Are you ok? She yelled almost hysterically.  
  
The dark-haired man licked his dry lips and nodded gingerly.  
  
“Yeah…I think so. I just…my side hurts. I think maybe I broke some ribs.”  
  
“Are you going to die Steve?” the young woman asked fearfully, one small hand clutching Steve’s shoulder.  
  
The Commander forced a weak smile to his face.  
  
“No sweetie, I’ll be ok. But what about you? Are you hurt?”’  
  
The blonde woman nodded slowly.  
  
“My shoulder hurts and I bumped my head and I’ve got some cuts but I think I’m ok.”  
  
Steve raised his head slightly higher and tried to peer through the pick up’s shattered windshield.  
  
“Where are we?”  
  
Izzy shifted on her seat until she was sitting on her bottom again.  
  
“We fell down the hill and the truck rolled over. We’re in the forest at the bottom of the hill.”  
  
“Oh god,” sighed Steve worriedly before remembering he needed to keep his sister-in-law calm. He decided to take stock of their situation.   
Izzy, although bruised and with a few cuts and scrapes on her body, seemed basically unhurt – thank God. Steve looked around at his own predicament. His left side hurt like a son of a bitch where the driver’s door had obviously caved in on him. His head was pounding, his eye sight was blurry and he suspected he had a concussion from banging his head against the window. He knew it could be worse though. Fortunately the roll bars over the cab of the truck had kept the roof from caving in or they would both be dead.  
  
Steve tried shifting again and a ball of fire shot up his left leg causing him to groan audibly. He gingerly leaned forward to try to figure out what was wrong but his leg was hidden by the wreckage at his feet. He was stuck. His leg was caught on something and the tentative tug he gave it didn’t loosen it but caused another bolt of pain. The Commander slumped back in the seat and took a deep, shaky breath. He suspected that his leg wasn’t just stuck but impaled on something.  
  
“Iz, my cell phone is in one of the pockets of my left pant leg, the leg closest to the door. Can you see if you can find it and pull it out?”  
  
Isabel nodded and climbed up on her seat once again and carefully leaned over Steve holding onto the bent steering wheel to keep her balance. Using her free arm she gently patted Steve’s leg until she felt the hard shape of the cell phone. She bent down a bit lower and pulled it out before straightening up and sitting back down on her own seat.  
  
“What does the screen show sweetie? Can we make a call?”  
  
Isabel examined the phone closely then looked up at Steve and grimaced.  
  
“The glass is broken and no light is coming on. I think it’s broken.”  
  
Steve sighed and rested his head back against the twisted seat he was trapped in.  
  
“Damn,” he whispered worriedly.  
  
“It’s ok Steve,” Isabel said trying to be brave. “Danny will come and find us and rescue us.”  
  
Steve smiled weakly at Danny’s sister.  
  
“He sure would if he knew where we were sweetie but we’re not on the main road remember?”  
  
Isabel’s eyes went wide in sudden realization of their predicament.  
  
“But...maybe someone will come by and see us and then call Danny?” she replied, an edge of panic in her voice.  
  
Steve sighed and closed his eyes. He could feel himself drifting and feared he would soon lose consciousness again.  
  
“This is an old road to a pineapple plantation that closed down years ago. Not many people even know it exists and even fewer actually use it.”  
  
Steve opened his eyes again and carefully turned his head to look into the terrified face of his sister-in-law.  
  
“Iz, listen to me,” he began gently. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to get yourself out of this truck and climb the hill and walk down the road from the direction we came in and…”  
  
“No!” Isabel screamed holding her hands flat over her ears and bursting into tears. “No, I can’t go by myself. It’s dark and something could attack me or I could get lost or...”  
  
Steve raised his right hand weakly and grabbed Izzy’s left arm and pulled it gently away from her ear.  
  
“Honey, listen to me please. I’m trapped in here. Something is stuck in my leg and I can’t get out. If you don’t go and get help we’ll both die.”  
  
The young woman squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head mutely, tears still streaming down her face.  
  
Steve squeezed her arm slightly and shook it just a little to force her to look at him.  
  
“Sweetie, please. I know you’re scared. I know you don’t like the dark but we’re in trouble here. We don’t have any food or water and I’m bleeding from my leg. I can feel it. If you don’t go for help neither one of us will make it. What would that do to Danny and Grace? What about your sisters?”  
  
“I’m afraid!” Isabel wailed pitching herself forward until her face was buried on Steve’s right shoulder. The SEAL lifted his hand until he was stroking the blonde woman’s hair comfortingly.  
  
“I know baby. I know you are. But you’re braver than you think Iz. I know you can do this.”   
  
Steve dropped his hand to Izzy’s shoulder and pushed her away gently until he could look into her red, puffy eyes.  
  
“Hey,” the Commander whispered, his voice becoming weaker as his vision began to grey out. “You-you’re an honourary member of 5-0 remember? Everyone is 5-0 is b-brave.”  
  
“I don’t want to be brave,” Izzy sobbed piteously. “I want to stay here with you.”  
  
Steve’s eyes drifted closed and he felt his hand slide away from his sister-in-law’s shoulder and drop uselessly to dangle between the seats of the truck.  
  
“Iz..,” he tried again but he felt the darkness drift over him and he was helpless to fight it.  
  
“Steve!” Izzy screamed shaking the taller man’s shoulder roughly. “Steve don’t go to sleep please! Steve!”  


**********  
  
Kono drove her Cruze slowly down the Farrington highway as Danny in the passenger seat beside her and Chin in the back seat, kept their eyes glued for any sign of Steve or Isabel or the truck. They had been driving for well over an hour and were almost at the spot where Steve was supposed to drop Isabel off for the weekend camping trip.  
  
Danny sighed and rubbed his hands over his face before dropping them back to his lap.  
  
“Where the hell are they? How could they just vanish off the face of the earth?”  
  
Kono chewed her bottom lip as she steered the car into the parking lot where Isabel was to have met her friends hours before.  
  
“I don’t get it. The Farrington is a well-travelled highway,’ she replied. “Even if Steve had had trouble there’s no way that someone wouldn’t have seen them and certainly no way he couldn’t have found a way to call for help.”  
  
Danny twisted around in his seat to look at Chin.  
  
“Is it possible he took another route?”  
  
Chin shook his head firmly.  
  
“The last ping from Steve’s cell phone before it went off line was from a tower on the Farrington.”  
  
Danny turned back to stare hopelessly through the windshield at the inky black night.  
  
“Maybe…” Danny took in a shaky breath and let it out slowly. “Maybe they were taken. Maybe someone kidnapped them.”  
  
Kono made a disgusted noise and waved a hand dismissively.  
  
“I find that impossible to believe.” She ticked off her reasons on her fingers. “Number one, they were on a busy road. Number two Steve is a Navy SEAL for god’s sake. He’d put up one hell of a battle before he’d let anyone get near Izzy and someone would have seen that. And number three…just …no.”  
  
“Well what the fuck happened then?” Danny demanded his hands flailing wildly, his frustration boiling over. “We’ve heard nothing from them, there’s no sign of them. Nothing from the HPD or hospitals. What else am I supposed to think?”  
  
“I wonder…” Chin mused from the back seat seemingly oblivious to the rising tension in the front.  
  
Danny turned around to look at the annoyingly calm man who continued to stare off into the distance lost in thought. After a few seconds of silence Danny shouted “What for Christ’s sake?”  
  
Chin ignored the short-tempered blond man and turned his attention to his cousin.  
  
“Cuz, isn’t the old Dale pineapple factory around here somewhere?”  
  
Kono turned her head to look over her shoulder at him and shrugged.   
  
“I don’t know. I didn’t know there was one in the area.”  
  
Chin nodded distractedly.  
  
“I’m pretty sure I’m right. It’s been closed for years but I remember my parents talking about it.”  
  
Danny lifted his hands palms up and looked at the older detective like he was crazy.  
  
“Who cares Chin?” he demanded. “What has that got to do with Steve and Izzy being missing?”  
  
“Because if I’m right and the old plant was near here, there was a road leading to it that ran parallel to the Farrington highway and actually exited on the highway somewhere along the road we just travelled.”  
  
Danny’s eyes widened in shock.  
  
“And you think Steve may have taken that road…but why?”  
  
Kono shifted in her seat so she could look at both men.  
  
“Supposedly traffic on the Farrington was crawling earlier today because of all the construction. Maybe Steve knew about the old road and decided it would be a short cut.”  
  
Danny licked his lips nervously and nodded.  
  
“That would be a stupid, idiotic thing for him to do – and I bet that’s exactly what happened…jesus.”  
  
“If he ran into trouble on that road there would be no way he could get help. If I’m right about it and it still exists, I doubt anyone even travels on it anymore.”  
  
Danny was tired of talking. He just wanted to find his husband and sister and get them home safe.  
  
“How do we get there Chin?”  
  
The older detective hesitated a moment before responding.  
  
“I…I’m not sure where the entrance is but even if I knew. It will be pitch black on that road. The chances that we’d find them tonight are…”  
  
“I don’t care if we have to crawl down the road on our hands and knees,” Danny snapped turning back to face the front of the car. “If they’re out there they could be hurt and in danger and we have to find them! Chin call HPD, call the friggin’ National Guard if you have to. We’ve got to find them!”  
  
**********  
  
Isabel trudged slowly along the road so tired she could barely put one foot in front of the other. She didn’t know how long she’d been walking but it felt like forever. She was thirsty and she had to go to the bathroom really badly but she was too afraid to walk off the road down into the ditch to pee. What if something was down there, a big snake or a hairy spider or something? She shook her head firmly. No, there couldn’t be a snake cause Steve said they didn’t have snakes in Hawaii but they had spiders and other creepy bugs. What if one bit her? Would she die?  
  
Isabel whimpered softly. If she didn’t pee now it would be too late and she’d go in her shorts. She had no choice. Looking around nervously to make sure no large animal was ready to spring on her, the young woman pulled down her shorts and underwear and squatted down on the old broken road.  
  
**********  
  
Chin jabbed the disconnect button on his phone and leaned forward to put his head between the two front seats.   
  
“OK Mamo says the entrance to the old Dale plantation road is about a mile east of Kili Drive. He says it’s pretty grown over and not easy to spot. He also says her remembers Steve talking about riding dirt bikes on the road with his friend when he was a teenager.”  
  
“This has to be the answer,” Danny replied as Kono stepped on the gas and used the Cruze’s lights and sirens to speed their journey back down the Farrington Highway. “We have to find them here. We have to.”  
  
Chin reached forward and put a warm hand on Danny’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze.   
  
“We’ll find them Danny. Just hang on.”  
  
**********  
  
Isabel stumbled over a broken piece of pavement and fell hard onto her hands and knees. The loose rocks and pebbles on the road ground into her skin and scraped them raw until they began to bleed freely. Izzy thumped down onto her bottom and began crying in pain and frustration. She gently swept her hand over her knees trying to dislodge the pebbles making the scrapes sting even more. The blonde woman pulled her legs to her chest, wrapped her arms around them and rested her forehead on her bloody knees. She couldn’t go any further. She just couldn’t. She was too scared and too sore and too tired. She wished she’d never left the truck or Steve. Even though he was trapped and wasn’t answering when she talked to him she still felt safer with him around. Now she was lost and alone in the jungle and no one would ever find her and she’d be eaten by wild animals.  
  
The young woman tipped her head back and wailed her brother’s name wishing he could appear as if by magic. Why wasn’t he here? Why hadn’t he rescued them yet? She dropped her head back to her knees and sobbed quietly until she felt herself drifting into sleep.  
  
**********  
  
The Cruze crashed and thumped its way over the damaged road as the high beam headlights illuminated the murky forest around them. Every once in a while some creature would be caught in the headlights, its small, red eyes reflecting back at them for a moment before vanishing. Danny shivered involuntarily as he thought about his husband and sister possibly trapped out here somewhere in this endless darkness.  
  
“OK the HPD have sent a unit and have started searching from the other end of this road. The helicopter is assigned to an armed robbery right now but as soon as they’re free they’ll join in the search,” Chin reported from the back seat as he shoved his phone back in his pocket.  
  
Danny nodded but didn’t respond keeping his eyes sweeping back and forth across the road in front of him.  
  
“Come on Steve,” he whispered desperately. “Come on. Where are you?”  
  
Kono stiffened beside him and sat up in her seat abruptly.  
  
“What’s that?” she called out pointing to the road ahead. Danny sat forward in his seat as a small shape sitting in the middle of the road was illuminated by the headlights.  
  
The three friends stared at the shape as they drove toward it and each gasped in unison as the shape moved and a small, blonde head lifted slowly and an arm was raised to shield eyes against the blinding headlights.  
  
“Izzy!” Danny screamed as he unlatched his seat belt, threw open his door and tumbled out of the moving vehicle. Danny rolled on the ground then scrambled to his feet and began running toward his sister barely avoiding being hit by the Cruz as Kono slammed on the brakes.  
  
“Izzy!” Danny screamed again as his sister climbed unsteadily to her feet and stared at him as if he were a figment of her imagination.  
  
“Danny?” she breathed in wonder as her brother ran up to her and enveloped her in his arms. As if finally realizing he was real and he was really here, Izzy began loudly keening her brother’s name over and over again as she slumped in his arms. Danny bent down and put his right arm under her knees lifting her easily off the ground and carrying her over to the Cruz where Kono and Chin waited with a blanket and a bottle of water.  
  
**********  
  
It took 10 minutes before Danny could get Isabel to calm down enough to tell them what happened.  
  
“We-were…late,” the young woman gasped between sobs, almost at the edge of hyperventilation.  
  
“St-Steve said we’d – t-take a short cut…”  
  
Danny ran his hand over his sister’s hair as she lay heavily on his chest.  
  
“But what happened baby? Did you have an accident?”  
  
He felt her head nodding against his chest.  
  
“B-boys on a big thing…with a motor…c-can’t remember the name. They ran out in f-front of us and St-Steve tried to get away but we- we fell down the hill and rolled over.”

  
“Oh my god,” Danny whispered brokenly as he pulled his sister tight against his torso.  
  
Izzy shuddered in his arms.  
  
“St-Steve told me I had to go get help and I didn’t want too because I was scared and…” Izzy began wailing again and Danny rocked her gently while Kono stroked her hair and whispered soothing words. Danny wanted desperately to ask about Steve and the location of the truck but he knew he first had to calm his traumatized sister.  
  
As Isabel began to settle and slumped more heavily against him, Danny gave her a gentle shake.  
  
“Sweetie, what about Steve? Where is he?”  
  
“He stopped talking to me,” the young woman replied hoarsely. “He fell asleep and I couldn’t wake him up so I climbed the hill and started walking.”  
  
“That was very brave of you Isabel,” Kono said, smiling at the young woman proudly.  
  
“Sweetie,” Chin interrupted gently from where he was kneeling in the front passenger seat. “Can you take us back to where the accident happened? Would you recognize the place again?”  
  
Izzy thought for a moment then shook her head.  
  
“It was d-dark. It was too dark. I don’t think I would remember.”  
  
Danny closed his eyes and tried to quell the panic rising up in him. God knows what condition Steve was in. If they had to wait a few more hours for daylight to continue the search his husband could be dead by the time they got there.  
  
“But I left something at the top of the hill,” Isabel’s sleepy voiced piped up in the still and quiet car. “My red sweater, the one Mommy knit for me before she died. I left it hooked on a branch at the top of the hill where we fell down.”  
  
Danny opened his eyes and looked up in shock at his equally shocked team mates.  
  
“Your red sweater?” Kono was the first one to get her voice back. “You left it at the top of the hill where the truck went off the road?”  
  
Izzy nodded as she burrowed deeper into Danny’s chest.  
  
“Like Hansel and Gretel,” she replied sleepily.  
  
**********  
  
Kono slid the Cruze to a halt by stomping on the brake.   
  
“There!” She yelled pointing out the light knit sweater twisting in the breeze and glowing like a beacon in the bright headlights.  
  
Isabel was asleep, slumped against Danny and he had to gently lower her down to lay across the seat so that he could scramble out of the car. By the time he had run to the scene of the accident, Kono was scrabbling down the hill, a flashlight and first aid kit clutched in one hand.  
  
Danny bolted towards the edge of the road but was stopped when Chin grabbed him from behind and pulled him away from the edge. The older detective pulled Danny backwards and held him against his chest. The blonde detective struggled.  
  
“Let me go Chin! God damn it let me go. I have to get to him – have to help him.”  
  
“Danny, stay here!” Chin ordered. “Let Kono check on him first. You can’t do anything to help right now and Isabel needs you here.”  
  
The blonde detective struggled for a moment longer then slumped against his friend’s broad chest. Suddenly he understood why Chin wouldn’t let him go down to the wreckage of the truck. The two cousins were afraid Steve might already be dead and they didn’t want Danny to see his husband like that.  
  
Danny felt a tremor wrack his body as he watched Kono gingerly crawl the rest of the way down the hill then run to the smashed and cratered truck.  
  
“Please God,” Danny the confirmed atheist whispered to himself as his heart pounded in his chest. “Please.”  
  
The two 5-0 officers watched from several dozen yards away as Kono climbed carefully into the passenger side of the truck. The beam of her flashlight darted about for a moment before she settled it on the dashboard and pointed it towards a slumped, motionless shape.  
  
Neither Chin nor Danny dared to take a breath as the Kono hovered over Steve obviously checking for signs of life. Danny swallowed convulsively as Kono backed out of the damaged cab and climbed to her feet outside the vehicle looking up at them and waving.  
  
“He’s alive!” she yelled up the steep embankment and Danny felt his knees turn to jelly. He was prevented from dropping to the road’s gravel shoulder by Chin’s strong hands on his biceps.  
  
“His pulse is weak and he’s trapped in the wreckage,” continued the young officer. “We’re going to need Fire Rescue and medevac right away.”  
  
**********  
  
Steve smiled weakly at his sister-in-law as she shyly entered his hospital room, Kono and Chin trailing in her wake. Danny smiled at his sister from where he sat beside his husband’s hospital bed holding the taller man’s hand.  
  
“Izzy,” Steve breathed in relief, his voice hitching at the sight of the bruises and small cuts all over the blonde woman’s body. “Are you ok sweetie?”  
  
Isabel stood just inside the doorway and nodded twisting her hands nervously.  
  
“I banged my shoulder and I banged my head.” She bent down to point out the scrapes on her knees. “I fell down and hurt my knees when I was running down the road.’  
  
“I’m sorry you got hurt honey,” Steve replied guiltily. “I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen to you.”  
  
Seeing the sad look on her brother-in-law’s face seemed to chase away the last of Isabel’s nerves. She hurried to his bedside and took his free hand in hers. Danny couldn’t help but smile at the sight of one of the SEAL’s large hands in two of his sister’s small ones.  
  
“It’s ok Steve,” Isabel replied firmly. “It was an accident. It wasn’t your fault. Those two stupid kids on the ATV caused the accident. You didn’t do anything wrong.”  
  
Steve glanced over to Danny who shook his head firmly. The two teens and their ATV had been found several hundred feet from the wreckage of Steve’s truck – both dead. Izzy didn’t need to ever know that.  
  
Steve looked back up at his sister-in-law.  
  
“I’m still very sorry about the accident,” he replied gently. “And I’m sorry you missed your camping trip.”  
  
Isabel shrugged again and gave her brother-in-law a small grin.  
  
“That’s ok. I don’t think I want to go camping in the forest now anyway.”  
  
Danny, Chin and Kono laughed at that and the Jersey native nodded approvingly at his smart sister. His smile faded when he saw his husband staring up at the young woman intently, a range of emotions fleeting across his face.  
  
“I’m so proud of you sweetheart,” Steve whispered hoarsely into the now quiet room. “You were so brave going down that dark road by yourself. You saved my life. You saved both of our lives.”  
  
“We’re all proud of you!” Danny piped up giving his sister a grin. “Not many people would have the courage to do what you did.”  
  
Izzy blushed and dropped her eyes.  
  
“I had to help Steve,” she replied quietly.  
  
Steve gave the young woman a watery smile before looking over at Kono, his eyebrows raised in question.  
  
“Did you get that thing I asked you to pick up?”  
  
Kono smiled and nodded and pulled a small, rectangular velvet box out of her pocket and handed it across the bed to her boss. Steve gently pulled his hand from Danny’s and took the box.  
  
“Iz, when a soldier does something brave he or she is given a medal,” began Steve as he carefully opened the box he was holding causing Isabel too look up in curiosity.  
  
“A few years ago I won this for something I did in combat in Afghanistan,” Steve continued as he turned the box so that his sister-in-law could see the shining medal it contained.   
  
“It’s called a Bronze Star and it was given to me for valour – or bravery,” Steve explained as he carefully unhooked the medal from the foam pad on which it rested.  
  
“Steve…” Danny whispered, suddenly realizing what his husband was doing.  
  
The SEAL glanced over at his husband and nodded his head before looking back up at his sister-in-law, his eyes now brimming with tears.  
  
“I want you to have this,” the Commander gritted out, his throat tight with emotion as he dangled the medal in front of her.  
  
Izzy looked up at him in shock, her eyes wide with awe.  
  
“But it’s yours,” she whispered in a tremulous voice. “You got it for being brave; for being a soldier.”  
  
“And now I want you to have it for being brave,” Steve replied ignoring the pain in his broken ribs as he leaned forward to pin the medal on his sister-in-law’s bright pink shirt. “I think you’re one of the bravest people I’ve ever known and I want you to keep this medal and remember than when you were afraid and scared of the dark you still found the courage to leave me and go and get help.”  
  
One tear rolled down Isabel’s cheek as she looked down at the gleaming medal on her shirt.  
  
Danny couldn’t help the sob that escaped him as he saw the slow, proud smile spread across his baby sister’s face. He didn’t have to look over at his team mates to see how they were reacting to the small ceremony; all the sniffling and throat clearing made that obvious.  
  
Despite his tears Steve grinned over at Isabel and gave her an abbreviated but heartfelt salute. The young woman returned the salute in the way he had taught her before climbing on the side of his bed and burying her face in his chest.  
  
“Thank you Steve. I’ll look after it I promise. I’ll never let it go.”  
  
Ignoring the tug of the IV taped to his hand, Steve wrapped his arms around his beloved sister-in-law.  
  
“Thank  _you_  Izzy. I’m so proud of you. I love you sweetheart.”  
  
The end.


End file.
